Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Animal Inside.


There is a animal inside us all. we just don't know it or perhaps don't want to know it. this became evident when i visited a goat fight conducted in harihar,a small town in karnataka,India. there was a 1000+ crowd of people jostling around the arena to get hold of a vantage point from where they could cheer the goats they were supporting. of all the fights in the world, of all the adversaries that have faced each other in the ring and otherwise, it was quite new seeing two goats who appear so nubile and serene fight gearing up to fight out a bloody war. the rounds were scheduled to begin at around 9:30 in the morning but in accordance to IST they began at 2:00. the otherwise serene,peace loving town of harihar was replaced by a adrenaline pumping, blood hungry gateway to what was going to be one of the most important events of the society here.(Yups it is a event and is conducted annually with each year pulling in more crowds).

The roads were filled by autos which carried goats and their already proud owners to the Colosseum(I couldn't resist the usage of this word)the goats ranged from ages of 1-6, which was decided by an elderly gentlemen in a white dhoti standing in between the ring. the way he decided the age was looking at the mouths of the goats. what data was stored therein to ascertain the ages of those creatures remains a mystery to me!!!but only goats of similar age groups were pitted against each other. the horns of the gladiators(Read:nubile goats) were painted in various color combinations. (I was introduced to at least 5 new colors that i previously didn't know,existed.I am trying to put a name to those colors and perhaps vouch for a patent)

There was a shelter made where a couple of commentators sat with mikes attached to 2000 watt speakers. there main job description was that of introducing each goat to the audience and competing against each other verbally as they randomly decided amongst each other which goat they were going to support. Although this was unknown to me as i remain a alien to the native language a friendly on0looker pointed out this to me "matter-of-factly".as the match started the crowds cheered in unison. the goats had no idea what was expected out of them and started to roam about in the middle of the arena looking for some green pastures. unfortunately they found none.(one of the goats thought it was a mating ground and was trying to impress his counterpart. but later lost interest. i think it found out that it's "adversary" belonged to the same gender and perhaps section 377 does not stand applicable in the world of goats)as the crowd booed and the goatERS(term i coined for the owners of the goats) forced them to fight each other, the fight eventually started.

It is said "don't judge a book by it's cover". i would like to add on to the maxim.never judge a animal by it's looks. what transpired after the initial instigation by the goatERS would go on to become one of the cruelest animal fights i have seen. as the goats collided head-on the sound resounded at least 500 Mt's way where i stood in awe.

After a while the violence became too much for one of my friend to handle and we decided to leave. it was told to me by a onlooker that with time the fight became more gore and blood was shed. i can only start to imagine how the crowd(including me if i was to be present there) would have loved it.

I asked myself the question of why was i enjoying the event so much? the sadist in me definitely was. we like to call our-self etiquette'd' human beings,superior to other species alive, only because of the lack of the cruel animal instinct.but somewhere down the line the Animalistic Neanderthal man in us managed to live on inside us all. wrestling,boxing, bull fights et cetera cater to this hunger that we hide from ourselves. the prize money to the winner was a meager 5000 bucks. but as master card rightly says "there are some things in this world which are priceless". i guess quenching the hunger for witnessing blood,gore and violence is one of them!!!HAVE WE REALLY EVOLVED???

3 comments:

A-Jester said...

Phew that really took time to come out i suppose

санжог said...

It's how it is, isn't it

Whoa ! said...

yes it is. and that is where the pain lies...